BEM/FVM conjugate heat transfer analysis of a three-dimensional film cooled turbine blade

We report on the progress in the development and application of a coupled boundary element/finite volume method temperature-forward/flux-back algorithm developed to solve conjugate heat transfer arising in 3D film-cooled turbine blades. We adopt a loosely coupled strategy where each set of field equations is solved to provide boundary conditions for the other. Iteration is carried out until interfacial continuity of temperature and heat flux is enforced The NASA-Glenn explicit finite volume Navier-Stokes code Glenn-HT is coupled to a 3D BEM steady-state heat conduction solver. Results from a CHT simulation of a 3D film-cooled blade section are compared with those obtained from the standard two temperature model, revealing that a significant difference in the level and distribution of metal temperatures is found between the two. Finally, current developments of an iterative strategy accommodating large numbers of unknowns by a domain decomposition approach is presented An iterative scheme is developed along with a physically-based initial guess and a coarse grid solution to provide a good starting point for the iteration. Results from a 3D simulation show the process that converges efficiently and offers substantial computational and storage savings.